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The Best Table Tennis Balls

It’s official. As of 1st July 2015 (this time next week), plastic table tennis balls will be used in all competitive table tennis in England. And the same thing is happening all over the world. Celluloid table tennis balls are a thing of the past.

You may have heard that the new plastic balls (also known as poly balls) are awful, break all the time, play nothing like the old balls and cost twice as much! Unfortunately, some of that is true. But we still need to use them (like it or not) so it’s worth finding the best table tennis balls available going forwards. In today’s post, I aim to help you do just that.

What are the options?

It may appear that there are 20+ different types of plastic ball but, in fact, that isn’t the case. While every table tennis brand has its own ball the majority of these are actually clones and completely identical to loads of others.

The reality is that there are currently only four factories producing plastic table tennis balls, which makes choosing the best one a lot easier!

So what are the four options?

DHS (Made in China) Seamed 40+ Table Tennis Balls

Double Fish (Made in China) Seamed 40+ Table Tennis Balls

Xushaofa Seamless 40+ Table Tennis Balls

Nittaku (Made in Japan) Seamed 40+ Table Tennis Balls

And it appears that nobody can really tell the difference between the DHS and Double Fish balls (spoiler alert: everyone hates them equally) so we can pretty much count them as the same (seamed plastic table tennis balls made in China).

Here’s a list of which branded balls come from which factory;

DHS’s or Double Fish’s Seamed Ball Factory (China)

Andro

Butterfly

Cornilleau

DHS

Donic

Double Fish

Joola

Nittaku SHA

Stiga

Tibhar

TSP

Yasaka

Xushaofa’s Seamless Ball Factory (China)

Hanno

Kingnik

Nexy

Palio

Stag

Xiom

Xushaofa

Yinhe

Nittaku’s Seamed Ball Factory (Japan)

Nittaku Premium

While it’s possible that there could be slight differences between the Butterfly 40+ ball, the Donic 40+ ball and the Joola 40+ ball (perhaps quality control is stricter for some brands than others) there shouldn’t really be any noticeable difference if you get a big enough sample of balls, produced at different times.

It’s my understanding that the production process used to create these balls is still being refined and is getting better over time. So if you get a ball from 2014 and compare it to one from 2015, the latest one should be better to play with. That’s what I’ve heard anyway.

So here’s the choice…

Do you want to get the seamed balls from China, the seamless balls from China, or the Nittaku Premium balls?

So, which are the best table tennis balls?

DHS & Double Fish (and clones)

The first balls to hit the market were the seamed balls from China (produced by DHS and Double Fish). Last summer I had a go with the Donic plastic ball for the first time and I have to admit I thought it was okay. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t great to play with, but it didn’t bother me too much.

What did bother me was that these balls would split along the seam like nobody’s business. They were breaking left, right and center, costing everyone a fortune. I think they may be a tiny bit more durable now (the June 2014 batch was a particularly bad one) but these balls still break way too much.

When you hear people hating on the new balls, chances are they are talking about these ones. People really don’t like them. It’s weird because most of the big brands are producing these balls (Butterfly, Donic, Joola, Stiga etc.).

Want my advice?

Stay away from all the seamed balls that are made in China. They suck!

Xushaofa (and clones)

Soon after, seamless balls started popping up made by Xushaofa (a brand I had never heard of before). I was able to try some of the Yinhe seamless balls back in November and I found them to be much much better, both in quality of play and durability.

These seamless balls felt harder, more even and didn’t have a seam to split down. They did feel a bit bigger and heavier than the old celluloid balls, but they were a huge improvement on the seamed balls everyone else was using.

I released the following #AskBen video in January recommending the seamless balls over all the others…

Availability of the seamless balls has increased and you can now buy Xushaofa balls (or their clones) from TeesSport and Bribar in the UK, Megaspin in the US, and worldwide from TableTennis11.

From what I can gather…

Lots of clubs and local leagues are choosing to go for the seamless plastic balls for the new season.

Nittaku Premium

After releasing that video I received a number of comments suggesting I check out the Nittaku Premium ball (not to be confused with the Nittaku SHA ball, which is a DHS or Double Fish clone made in China).

The Nittaku Premium is made by the Nittaku factory in Japan and is the only ball that isn’t surrounded by clones. No other ball is the same as a Nittaku Premium!

The guys in America seem to love it, but we can’t get hold of them here in the UK because none of the major table tennis stockists have any. From what I have read the Nittaku Premium is the best table tennis ball currently available, and it plays the most like the old celluloid balls. But that is no good if nobody has any!

The other problem is price.

TableTennis11 sell most of the latest plastic balls and the Nittaku Premium is their most expensive by far at €2.67 per ball (€8.00 for a pack of 3). That is a lot of money. Especially if they are going to break regularly (and I’ve heard that the Nittaku Premium still breaks and splits a lot more than an old celluloid ball would).

To put that price in perspective, you can pick up Donic, Tibhar and Yasaka 40+ balls for €1.50 each (€4.50 for a pack of 3). You wouldn’t want to – because they suck – but you could. The Xushaofa seamless balls are also €1.50 each (€9.00 for a pack of 6). So you can buy six seamless balls for pretty much the same price as three Nittaku Premiums!

My thoughts…

It looks like these balls are good but too expensive and too difficult to source.

Go seamless!

This article is all about the best table tennis balls and in many ways the Nittaku Premium comes out on top. It plays the most like the old celluloid balls and has received the most positive reviews from the worldwide table tennis community.

I guess if you are looking for the best ball you should go for the Nittaku Premium.

But, as I said earlier, price, durability and availability are clearly letting this ball down and therefore I am going to continue to recommend the Xushaofa seamless table tennis balls as the best table tennis balls currently on the market.

While they might not be perfect I believe they are your best choice whether you are buying balls for yourself, a club, a league or a tournament. You will make considerable savings (because they are so much cheaper than the Nittaku Premium balls and shouldn’t break as often) and I’m convinced that the majority of players will be happy playing with these.

REMEMBER: All the seamless balls are made in the same factory!

I’ve seen some people saying the Stag balls are rubbish and the Xushaofa balls are much better but there shouldn’t really be any noticeable difference. There will always be some variability between batches but all the balls are pretty much the same.

So if I were you I would buy either Xushaofa, Stag, Yinhe, Palio, Xiom, Nexy, Hanno or Kingnik seamless table tennis balls going forward. These are your best choice, in my opinion.

Do you agree/disagree? Leave a comment and let me know!

The Cheapest Seamless Balls

OK, you’ve decided to go for the seamless table tennis balls. But where should you buy them from? Where are they cheapest?

You will always get the best deal by going directly to the Chinese wholesalers or brands and ordering a load of balls in bulk. If that is the kind of thing you are into, go for it. Otherwise, here are the cheapest prices I’ve found online…

Again, it is always cheaper to buy balls in bulk. You can get 72 Xushaofa 40+ balls from Megaspin in the US for only $115.95 (or $1.61 per ball).

And keep an eye out for the training balls!

Xushaofa make new seamless “club” balls which aren’t 3-star balls and will be much cheaper (less than half the price). They aren’t trying to trick you or anything, plenty of people want cheaper plastic training balls, it’s just that if all you are thinking is, “I need to get some of these Xushaofa seamless balls”, you might end up getting the wrong ones by mistake because these look cheaper. If you need balls for a league or tournament make sure you get the 3-Star ones.

I hope that helps you to navigate the complex world of the new plastic table tennis balls. If the Nittaku Premium balls (which are probably the best table tennis balls currently being produced) eventually come down in price then I will probably update this post and recommend those but for now I’m sticking to the Chinese seamless balls because they win when we consider quality, durability, and price.

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About Ben Larcombe

Hi, I'm Ben Larcombe! I'm 28 years old, I live in Tunbridge Wells and I'm a professional table tennis coach.

Rory Goulding

I’ve used the double fish seamed and xushaofa seamless.
The DF break easily.
The xushaofa last a lot longer.
Most of the guys now prefer the poly ball, and the xushaofa ball is the official ball for provincial tournaments here in Ontario, Canada.
So we prefer to train with that ball.
We only use celluloid balls for multi ball training and try to do it in significant blocks so we are not switching back and forth.
We only use the poly ball for any matches and serve practice.

Have you tried the Nittaku Premium 40+ Rory? And how are you getting on? Haven’t heard from you in a while now.

Rory Goulding

No I haven’t tried the nittaku premium poly balls yet.
Like you, I haven’t been able to find any available.

I’m doing well. I subscribed to an online performance psychologist.
He is really helping me with the mental side of my game.

My dream of playing full time is still active, but I need to find a way to finance it/make time to train… I’m working on that.

Charles Joubeily

Interesting read Ben. Just been to 3 tournaments in Europe
in the last 3 months. Linz, Austria, they used the Joola seamed poly, they were
terrible. So many were breaking, they actually run out of balls and brought in
some Donic ones to keep going. Prague Grand Prix, they used the Hanno seamless
poly, they were fantastic, I actually can’t remember any of them breaking, and
they were selling them for €8 for six which works out about £1 each. Lithuanian
Open, they used the old celluloid balls. This was crazy considering it was the
only ITTF tournament of the three.

The other thing to note, I believe orange balls are still
not being made in poly, which can be a disadvantage for players who suffer from
some form of colour blindness.

What about the German manufacturer Weener, you
didn’t mention it in your article. It was listed on a Q&A document
published last year by the ITTF.

Hi Charles, Yeah that’s no good if they are using completely different balls at different tournaments! The Joola ones in particular seem to be getting a lot of hate. The Weener factory have a license or whatever from the ITTF to produce balls but they haven’t actually come out with any yet and I haven’t heard any news to suggest they will be.

Cornel

Very interesting and useful article. In Moldova, we began using the poly ball from the beginning of this year, though the 40mm cell balls also remain legal. The first impression about the new poly ball was a very very bad one in terms of durability. As I am an umpire, the first thing i noticed was that the poly balls were breaking very fast. From my estimation, at the first tournament in 2015 there were broken ~3 times more balls than at the last tournament when using old balls. However, after some time i noticed that fewer balls are breaking at each tournament. I also noticed that more and more players start using the Xushaofa balls, and I have to say that I also liked them more than the DHS(and clones) ones.

As for the prices, you didn’t consider that Eacheng’s prices do Not include shipping.

igorponger

Yea, every single seamless ball comes from a china factory as located in Shanghai. Factory price is about $0.6 per ball (super quality three star grade).

Caranthir

I’m using Nittaku Premium for the last 1.5 months. Only 3 balls had scraches on it after playing many hours. I’ve got 9 boxes left out of 10 :) Definitely worth money because it doesn’t break easily. This ball is one word PERFECT! Perfect spin, rotation etc.. You will fall in love with this ball! Just play with it.

mayxy

“Stay away from all the seamed balls that are made in China. They suck!”
According to some tests + my humble experience, seamless balls tend to keep much less spin than seamed balls do.
Because Nittaku Premium is much too expensive, I have to choose between DHS an Double Fish factory balls – I have no other option. Those Double Fish made seem to get more positive feedback, however, I have not the opportunity to play them.

Tony Sweeney

Paddle Palace in Portland Orego has the Nittaku 3-Star PREMIUM 40+ Balls in stock. Price is $33.95 for 12, also available in sixes and threes all for a fraction under three dollars a ball, not including shipping. They will ship to the UK.

It’s been about six months since this great post. Any update? I’m going to change over my collection of balls at home, so figure 144 balls, and I’m wondering about Nittaku vs Xushaofa. I’m not that concerned about price, more wondering about quality and total satisfaction.

Niraj Mahajan

Hi Ben. Amazing post.
Just wanted to know your experience with buying from TT11 and Eacheng?

Duke Stogner

Did not see Butterfly 3-Star 40+ balls mentioned. Any word on them?

Nom

It’s on the very 1st list of balls made in china.

yourock

Hello, Ben, thank you for your comprehensive analysis on different types of plastic balls. I guess the reason why big brands still sell seam balls of bad quality is that there’s demand in the market for such balls. (Some rumor says seam balls behave more like the old celluloid balls, some even say they like DHS ball’s bounce…..ppl have strange taste. LOL).

Re: Nittaku Premium ball, not sure whether it could be counted as the best-quality ball, but it does look ugly (the seam bulges out). It seems Nittaku still has technical issues with mass production, most of their balls from the production line couldn’t comply with T3 so these are discarded or degraded into 1-star & 2-star, leaving only a small percentage of 3-star balls for sell.

Saiful Bahri Zakaria

nittaku premium is the best for now. used to play with xushaofa and yinhe balls before.

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